Custom Units with Weights for Inventory & Shipping

[pandamonium504]

Hi everyone,

I’m trying to figure out if there’s a way in Square to set up custom units for items and assign weights to each unit. For example, we sell products both by the pack and by the box. Inventory needs to be tracked at the pack level (since a box contains multiple packs), but we also need to have weights for both packs and boxes so shipping costs are calculated correctly when customers order online.

Is there currently a way to do this in Square, or is it something that would need to be requested as a new feature?

Thanks in advance!

[_Violet · Accepted solution]

Hello @pandamonium504 and welcome to the Square Community! My name is Violet and I'm one of the Moderators here. I'm happy to provide you with some information 🙂

For your item units, you can choose from a list of the existing preset units or add your own custom units. You can find additional details here in our Support Center. Also, you can find more info on selling items by weight in this article.

If you haven't already enabled inventory management, you can do so by following these steps:

1. Visit Items & Orders > Items in your online Square Dashboard.
2. Select an item > Select stock amount > Manage stock.
3. Be sure to toggle on Tracking.
4. To add stock, tap the stock amount > select a Stock Action > enter amount.
5. Toggle on Alerts if you’d like to receive daily email alerts when stock is low. Then enter an amount for Low Stock Alert.
6. Click Done > Save to confirm your updates.

I hope this information is helpful but please do let me know if you have any additional questions.

[pandamonium504]

Hello Violet,

Thank you for walking me through the basics of inventory tracking and how to set it up. What I’m looking for, however, is the ability for a single item to use two different UPCs and track it using custom units. This is necessary because some items are sold either as a full box or as individual packs from that box. While I know how to create custom units, the issue is that they don’t allow weight to be assigned. This creates a challenge for shipping, since I rely on weight for calculating costs. Without the ability to assign weight to items with custom units, the shipping amounts will not be accurate.